1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a timer operation management apparatus, assembled in, e.g., a video tape recorder (to be abbreviated to as a VTR hereinafter), a digital audio tape recorder (to be abbreviated to as a DAT hereinafter), and the like, having the function of automatically exchanging a plurality of cassettes and managing time of operations.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, many television programs tend to be long. In addition, with the advent of satellite broadcast, programs broadcast around or after midnight are becoming increasingly popular. For this reason, VTRs tend to have a recording mode allowing a long-time recording operation during a user's absence.
However, since an existing VTR can load only one tape cassette, a long-time recording operation, or a recording capacity for an absent recording operation, is limited. Since the cassette size is standardized, limitations are imposed on the manufacture of large-capacity cassette tapes. In order to solve these problems, there are some proposals wherein VTRs are arranged to be able to load a plurality of cassettes.
When VTRs are arranged to be able to load a plurality of cassettes, however, various means for associating various functions of VTRs with a plurality of cassettes are required.
For example, when a timer recording operation is to be performed while a plurality of cassettes are set in a VTR, one of these cassettes must be selected when a recording start time is reached. When a timer recording reservation operation is to be performed, a cassette to be subjected to recording must be designated.
When the timer mode is canceled before a timer recording start time, and a VTR is left in this state, and the timer recording operation cannot be executed. In particular, when a plurality of users use a VTR capable of loading a plurality of cassettes, reliability of a timer operation is often impaired. For example, when a user A goes out after he or she sets a timer recording mode, a user B may use the VTR, and leave the timer mode canceled.
Furthermore, when a user performs a timer recording reservation operation, he or she must know whether or not the designated cassette exists in the VTR. In addition, a demand has arisen for a simple timer recording reservation operation.